We’d reached the docks by the time Caylus shouted, “There!” and pointed at a small house with a low-burning candle and a sign with a healer’s symbol.

I leapt off my horse, Res bundled in my arms, and pounded on the door. “Help! Open the door!”

Light filled the window as someone lit another candle, and a half-asleep older man pulled open the door. He took one look at our Illucian warhorses and our anything-but-Illucian faces and slammed the door shut.

“Hey!” I screamed, pounding as hard as I could.

“Thia?”

“Open the damn door, you bastard!” My throat tore with every word, my voice turning hoarse.

“Thia!”

“What?” I shrieked, rounding on Caylus.

He blinked, head tilted, then lifted his gaze to a spot over my head where a line of ships was secured to the docks. He pointed at one with orange and green flags depicting a stag’s antlers. “I know those flags. We have to get to that ship.”

“She needs a healer.” Kiva had slumped over despite the fact that Caylus had torn off a piece of his shirt and pressed it firmly against the wound.

“There will be one on board. Trust me!”

With a final kick to the door that sent one of the hinges clattering to the ground, I gave Res to Caylus before leaping onto my horse. Once I had him back, we took off along the docks to the ship. Moonlight bathed the deck and quarters, but it was otherwise dark, and the only way up meant scaling a mooring rope.

“There’s no one here,” I hissed.

Caylus rode past me to the water’s edge. “Talon!” he shouted at what looked like an empty lookout perch. “Talon!”

For half a second, nothing happened. Then a shaggy mop of red hair appeared slowly over the edge of the lookout, followed by the rest of the yawning young man. He put a hand to his forehead as if to shade his eyes from some invisible sun. “Who’s there?” he called.

“Damn you to Duren, Talon! I know you can see me.”

I blinked. I’d never heard Caylus use that tone, let alone curse. Though I was about to do a whole lot more if Talon didn’t hurry up.

The redhead waved. “Hiya, Caylus. Have a nice time in Illucia, did ya?”

I stared at Caylus. “Is he serious?”

“Talon, get Samra. Now.”

Something about the other person’s name sent the redhead into action. He scurried down from the lookout like a rodent, landed on the deck, and disappeared inside the ship. I eyed Caylus. He’d sounded confident, in control. So different under pressure.

“I need your vest,” I told him.

He looked at me, brow furrowing, but did as I said, unbuttoning the vest he wore over his long-sleeved tunic and handing it to me. I wrapped Res in it, careful to leave part of his beak exposed so he could breathe.